Regular viewers of the BBC flagship daytime drama will have observed that a staggering two thirds of the cast have been taken hostage over the last few weeks. Ruth was held hostage the other afternoon and now it looks like Zara is being held against her will for the third time in a row. If anything it's not exactly a good advertisement for the GP profession.
I'm one of those people who think that the soap has kind of ruined a lot of TV drama - look at anything these days and you'll see a tight, ravenous schedule needing to be stuffed for a few mins before vomiting up the results ready for the next course. Unless you're a super writer like Paul Abbott dialogue is mainly perfunctory and to the point, bashing each scene along. Characters behave bafflingly in response to events that needn't necessarily have occurred, Lucas the Allotment Fiend in EastEnders being a prime example.
The difference between a structured way of working and the latest cookie cutter is a marked one, but one broadcasters fail to understand. One of the best Screenwriting MAs in the country, (and stomping ground for many up and coming writers) at De Montfort University in Leicester, sounded a ding dong of doom in my soul a few years ago, when I was told a key aspect of my training would involve shadowing BBC 1's flagship medical/hostage-taking drama... Doctors.
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